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New York Delta of Phi Beta Kappa. 



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ORATION 



"THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY," 



CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH, 



1887. 



New York Delta of Phi Beta Kappa. 



ANNUAL ORATION 



BY 



PROF. CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH, A.M. 

n 



SUBJECT : 

"THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY." 



COLUMBIA COLLEGE LIBRARY. 



THURSDAY, JUNE 2D, 1887, AT 8 P. M. 



PRINTED FOR THE CHAPTER. 



O KKI C ERS 



OF 



^^f Jim ioph BpHb of f Hi PfIh Kojppa. 



1886—1887. 



President : 
ROBERT LENOX BELKNAP, A.M. 

Vice-President : 
HENRY ELSWORTH GREGORY, A.M., LL.B. 

Recording Secretary : 
EDWARD JOHNSON RUNK, A.M. 

Treasurer : 
FREDERICK MARTIN BURR, A.M. 

Corresponding Secretary : 
WALTER GILLETTE BATES, A.M. 

Committee of Arrangements for the Oration, June 2d, 1887 

EDWARD J. RUNK, 
MORNAY WILLIAMS, 
HARRY T. PECK, 
CHARLES KNAPP, 
HENRY E. GREGORY. 



THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 



The Muse of Hellas stood upon Olympus, looking south- 
ward. At her feet lay a block of Parian marble, formless 
and stained with soil. Before her winged vision space 
yielded, and Egypt's Art, once free, but now bound by arti- 
ficial laws, ranging in order its creations, exclaimed, "Lo, 
the hi^est ; lo, the unsurpassable ! " 

But that prescient spirit saw the f ettets, and turned away. 
Musing, she lifted the coarse block, and, shaping it first in 
uncouth lines borrowed from the south, sought then, in the 
image of the ideal visible to her inner eye, to form the un- 
formed, removing every fetter, every clinging chain, until 
the marble rose and spoke. 

Stand where thou wilt, lover of thy country, and, look- 
ing backward and forward, thou shalt recognize the oppor- 
tunity placed in our hands of giving to the world a truer, 
fuller expression of the ideal in government, in art and in 
religion than any history records. But how act in view of 
this our responsibility ? Is the morn breaking, and shall we 
await her coming upon the eastern hills ? The morn is not 
breaking ; our eyes may not behold the day when, the insa- 
tiate thirst for gain in a measure stilled, the worship of the 
material become less all-engrossing. Art, the noble, the 
majestic, shall come and the old forms receive a new and 
higher life. 



6 



The river, green-walled beside, and barred by nature or 
by man before, loiters that it may gather depth and strength. 
A Lessing lifts away obstructions and traces with wearying 
toil a path, o'er which a Schiller and a Goethe shall run. 
Ah ! but there is an inspiration in such quiet, patient en- 
deavor. The tiniest brooklet, that merges its separate life 
in the sea, lives on in its waters — nameless, but immortal ; 
the humblest human life, whose energy is given to the ideal, 
lives on immortal in its silent influences. That thy lot falls 
in the days when those who toil may not inscribe their 
names deeply upon time's tablets should give a more 
abiding inspiration. 

A period of transition, a period of preparation, such, if 
if we err not, is the historical position assigned to our age. 
A sense of halting and of questioning pervades the univer- 
sal consciousness. For humanity may not drift on and 
away, like the impassive stream, recking not of its whence 
and whither ; anon a self-consciousness awakes, demanding 
imperiously of the present its sources and law of progres- 
sion, in order that, with clearer vision and ordered march, 
society may move toward the morrow. 

Whence have we come and whither are we bound ? 
This is the ever recurring interrogation to-day in sociology. 
A single phase of this vast problem forms the theme of our 
present consideration, namely, the future of our higher edu- 
cation as fore-indicated by its past ; or, in other words, the 
American University — its nature and functions. 

According to those best informed, the path to the pro- 
fessional schools no longer crosses the college portals. 

The explanation of this phenomenon is to be found 
mainly in the lack of adaptation to existing needs of our 
system of higher liberal education. The evils arising there- 
from in the decadence of true science, with the resulting 



tendency to rate all mental activity according to a purely 
material standard, have been observed and commented up- 
on by all. The urgent necessity of some kind of reorgani- 
zation, a necessity ever more clearly and universally recog- 
nized, has voiced itself on more than one occasion in the 
demand for the creation of an American university. 

Thus a score of years since, in 1869, the National Teach- 
ers' Association appointed a committee, in which every 
state was represented, to formulate a plan of organization, 
and lay the foundations of such an institution. 

That such need of reorganization exists is indisputable. 
Admitting it then as a premise, how shall the desired trans- 
formation be effected ? In other words, is the university to 
exercise this reformatory function, and, if so, what is to be 
its structural plan, and upon what foundations is it to rest ? 

Etymologically and theoretically the word "Universi- 
tas" implies a system of instruction embracing the whole 
of human knowledge; in practice, however, it defines, usually, 
simply and solely the highest grade of the actual scholastic 
curriculum ; though in France the entire system of peda- 
gogics, from Alpha to Omega, from the elementary school 
to the licentiate, during the first half of the present century, 
was styled "The University." In our argument we shall 
accept the word with its customary limitations. 

Before proceeding to our inquiry let us establish a few 
principles: 

Firsi. There is in every clime and country a process of 
development social, political, educational, which, having 
its raison d'etre in the past, may be styled historical 
and national. Any force that is to make toward perfection- 
ment must be applied in the line of this historic growth. 

For, though comparative science shows man the world 
over progressing along parallel lines from the stone age to 



8 



the golden, from the patriarchal to the self-ruling, never- 
theless, here, as in nature, the constant 'presence of a varia- 
ble element renders identity impossible. While, therefore, 
each nation may and should learn from every other, and, in 
accord with the principles determined by its organic consti- 
tution and its own past development, apply the lessons 
learned, it should never attempt substitution. In the case of 
any true folk that within itself possesses, even in germ, the 
l^rinciple of healthful growth, such a course would be waste- 
ful of years, if not suicidal. This we may regard as an 
axiom of history. 

Second. All development is gradual, in human society 
as well as in the higher jDhysical world. Oline hast aher 
oJtne rast^ without haste, without rest, the processes of 
evolution succeed ; we must wait upon law, working with it, 
seeking neither to hasten nor to retard its movement. 

Third. Every organization, to exist and to be efficient^ 
must stand in accord with the laws of time and place. 

In the light of these principles, let us proceed now to 
examine the nature of the university per se and its relations 
to American society. 

I. What does the educational record of our past contain ? 
Whence have we come, and by what paths ? 

Time does not permit us to follow to its source, step 
by step, the pedagogic stream that nourishes the nineteenth 
centurj^, nor to determine the nature and relative import- 
ance of the various forces whose resultant action has fixed 
its path and formed its character. 

It is enough for our purpose to note simply, that, mov- 
ing from imperial Rome, hidden by monastic and 
cathedral walls during the dark ages, this stream came 
forth again definitively to the light in Italy and France in 
the twelftli and thirteenth centuries, and was thence led all 



over Europe, the University of Paris especially forming the 
grand educational model for that middle-age community of 
catholic states, in which France held the first place. 

These primitive universities were divided into four fac- 
ulties : Arts, Theology, Law^ and Medicine ; the faculty of 
Arts conferring the liberal education of the middle ages, 
the so-called trivium and quadrivium, and thus occupying 
a position somewhat analogous to that held by the depart- 
ment of Philosophy in the German universities of to-day. 

At the University of Paris the Arts faculty was the first 
constituted and the most important by far, while the fac- 
ulty of Law gave to Bologna its celebrity. 

Under the wing of the university were reared the colleges 
which, to quote Matthew Arnold's words, "were created 
to supply centers of discipline which the university— in 
itself an apparatus merely of teachers and lecture-rooms — 
did not provide."* In France the opposition of the univer- 
sity to the renaissance produced stagnation, while in Grer- 
many the petrifaction of protestantism led to a similar 
result. 

Under state supervision the reorganization demanded, in 
order to place the higher education abreast of the intellect- 
ual needs of the present, has been generally realized upon 
the continent. 

The work of reconstruction in France dates from the 
revolution — that period of chaos and new creation. 

The organization, introduced at that epoch, held in force, 
essentially unchanged, until 1850. f 

The entire empire w^as divided, for educational purposes, 
into a certain number of districts, styled academies, each 
having at its head a rector, while the whole constituted the 

*Matthew Arnold—" Schools and Universities on the Continent," p. 9. 
fSee J. B. Simonet, " Traite Ele^ne^itaire de Droit Public et Adininisiratif.'" 



10 



university, over which a grand master presided, assisted by 
a council. 

The restoration maintained the Napoleonic university, 
but transferred the power of the grand master to the min- 
ister of public instruction and ecclesiastical affairs. 

Since 1850 the monopoly of the state in the field of edu- 
cation has been overthrown, and individuals or associations, 
duly qualified, are legally authorized to establish schools of 
secondary and (since 1875) of superior or university in- 
struction, provided they have first secured the assent of the 
academic authorities of their respective districts. 

Such private schools, while enjoying a certain degree of 
independence, must always be open to official inspection, 
while the conferring of the university degrees can take 
place only before the faculties of the state. 

As regards the public schools the general disciplinary 
functions fall to the Jycees and to the communal colleges, 
the former being supported by the state, the latter by the 
communes. These establishments of secondary instruction 
are divided, furthermore, into two classes; those of "" En- 
seignement Glassique^'''' conferring the time-approved classi- 
cal education, and those of ^' Enseignement Special,'''' in- 
tended to prepare for non-professional pursuits, such as 
business, agriculture, etc. The courses of instruction in 
the lycees and colleges are crowned with the baccalaureate 
degree and lead up to the higher curricula of the spe- 
cial schools, such as the " Ecole Normale,'' "Ecole Poly- 
technique," "Ecole des Chartes," "Ecole de Saint Cyr," 
"Ecole de Pharmacie," etc., and to that of the faculties 
located in the seventeen academic centers.* 

* (Law of 1854). Aix, Besan^on, Bordeaux, Caen, Chambery, Clermont, 
Dijon, Douai, Grenoble, Lyon, Montpellier, Nancy, Paris, Poitiers, Kennes, 
Toulouse, and Alger. 



11 



These university faculties are five in number, namely, 
Theology, Law, Medicine, Science and Letters; though all 
are not represented at every center. Beside these state 
establishments we have, as above noted, private schools of 
secondary and superior instruction. As an example of the 
latter we may mention the "Ecole Libre des Sciences Poli- 
tiques." 

In Germany the modern theories of education have 
perhaps found their most complete expression. In general 
it may be said that the province of secondary instruction 
is occupied by the "Gymnasium" and the "Real-Schule"*; 
the former giving chief prominence to the humanities, the 
latter to the modern languages and the industrial sciences. 

Usually distinct institutions, we find them at times com- 
bined, in which case only the first two years of the entire 
nine years' course are common to both. 

The "Zeugniss der Reife," the testimonial conferred at 
the completion of the course, corresponds to our baccalau- 
reate degree. The university receives the gymnasial alumnus 
to all of its faculties, the real alumnus to a certain num- 
ber**, and is itself usually divided into four faculties ; 
Theology, Law, Medicine and Philosophy— the last embrac- 
ing the humanities, and the mathematical and natural 
sciences. 

The course of Theology, Law or Philosophy in Prussia 
requires three years ; of Medicine, four. 

The entire direction of public instruction is placed under 
the active supervision of the state. 

Analogous conditions meet us everywhere upon the con- 



* Since 1882 Prussia has three kinds of institutions of secondary instruc- 
tion: the " Humanistische Gymnasien," i. e., the Gymnasien proper, the 
" Eeal-Gymnasien " (Keal-Sehulen, where Latin is studied), and Ober-Eeal 
Schulen (without Latin). Course in each and all nine years. 

** To certain branches of the Philosophical faculty. 



12 



tinent ; so that, in general, the work of reorganization may 
be snmmed np as follows : * 

I. The creation of university faculties adequate to the 
intellectual demands of the age, 

II. The giving of organic form and logical continuity to 
the whole scheme of secondary instruction. 

III. The gradual recognition of the fact that, with the 
broad domain opened to the human mind to-day, a bifurca- 
tion in secondary instruction is desirable, and perhaps from 
a very early period. 

In England the relation of the college to the university 
was similar to that which obtained in France. The former 
afforded thus a center of discipline and, through its endow- 
ments, extended to the poorer classes the advantages of 
education. Theoretically the highway, the Via Appla of 
learning, led through the two stadia of the Arts Faculty, 
triviuni and quadrivium, up to Theology; actually, however, 
we find multitudes abandoning, already at a very early 
period, the arts' curriculum, at the close of the Hrst stadium, 
in order to turn their attention to civil or canonic law, 
since these paths of research afforded greater material 
rewards. 

With the centuries a gradual transformation conies. 
The colleges of Oxford and Cambridge absorb, by degrees, 
well-nigh the entire charge of instruction, especially of that 
connected with the faculty of arts, while the functions of the 
university become almost exclusively executive. 

Prior to the birth of the universities, existed the gram- 
mar or Latin schools, successors of the cathedral schools. 
In the episcopal cities, their curriculum embraced both 
trivium and quadrivium, elsewhere only the latter. With 
the greater breadth given to the quadrivium in the univer- 
sities, the importance of the grammar schools naturally 



13 



declined, until they seem to have occupied simply the field 
of secondary instruction. 

No reorganization analogous to that realized upon the 
continent has been effected in England, where the higher 
education is not under state control, and the lack of adapt- 
ation to existing needs is perhaps more marked there than 
here in America. The argument in favor of some kind of 
general supervision is obvious ; but it is not a necessary 
inference that we must apply the continental principle 
of active governmental control to those of our colleges, 
which, being neither the offspring nor the adoptive child- 
ren of the state, may, and we believe will, attain greater 
usefulness when left to themselves, that is, to the guidance 
of those whom they shall elect to the discharge of such 
supervisory functions, than when subjected to so changeful 
a control as that which apparently inheres in the consti- 
tution of every democracy. 

In New England the higher system of general education, 
brought over from Old England, was divided here as there 
into the two stadia of the college and the grammar school; the 
latter being superseded in quite recent times by the so-called 
Academy. The curriculum of the American college was, in 
the main, modelled upon that of the parent country, special 
consideration, however, being given to theological science, 
since the training of a ministry was regarded as the most 
important function of these institutions. The curriculum of 
Harvard thus in 1638 seems to have embraced Latin, Greek, 
Hebrew, Chaldee and Syriac, logic, ethics, arithmetic, phys- 
ics, metaphysics, politics, and divinity ; representing, thus, 
besides the province of a faculty of Arts, in a measure, also, 
that of a faculty of Theology. 

While the early vital statistics of our American 
colleges, at least those accessible to us, do not afford a 



14 



basis for accurate computation, the average age at gradua- 
tion during the first quarter of a century of Yale's existence, 
from 1708 to 1728, seems to have been a fraction above 
twenty years, and this w^e shall assume as fairly represent- 
ing the status of the American college of that period in 
respect to this point. 

The educational system developing with the demands 
for higher and more varied mental training, the following 
changes have taken place : 

First. The higher post-collegiate discipline in the 
faculties of Medicine, Theology and Law, which was, for a 
considerable period, left to a kind of private pupilage, 
has secured recognition, and systematic instruction in each 
of these departments is now offered in schools specially 
organized to meet these special demands. 

Second. The college, delimited in its functions to those 
of a faculty of Arts, and not impeded, as in England, by a 
stubborn spirit of conservatism, in its struggle to hold pace 
with the age, has year by year enlarged and modified its 
curriculum, replacing the old unity by a multiplicity, and 
drawing, of course, the academy after it, until the latter has 
absorbed quite a portion of the work formerly embraced in 
the collegiate quadrennium. 

This process of evolution is at present, comparatively 
speaking, rapid. In corresponding ratio the average age at 
graduation has been raised. 

For, while the German gymnasia! courses of general 
disciplinary training are absolved with the nineteenth or 
twentieth year, the French with the eighteenth or nineteenth, 
to place the average age at graduation from our eastern 
colleges at from twenty-two to twenty-three years would 
probably be rather an under- than an over-estimate. 

Two distinct phases may be observed in this evolution, 



15 

whose line of march we have just traced. During the 
earlier stage in the history of the American college, 
essentially one and the same disciplinary cursus obtains for 
all; during the latter, that toward which the movement 
proceeds, the curriculum is gradually transformed in ac- 
cord with the most diverse intellectual demands. 

We have now but to look at the continent to understand 
whence we have come and whither we are tending, educa- 
tionally speaking. The earlier phase in this development 
represents the gymnasialor academic stadium of the faculty 
of Arts, the later, the university department of Arts or 
Philosophy. For the first aims at laying broad common 
foundations, while the second, considering such foundations 
as already sufficiently broad and firm, rears thereupon 
intellectual structures of a more special and class character. 
We see, therefore, the American college, delimited in 
scope to the faculty of Arts, emerging contemporaneously 
with the firm establishment in distinct schools of the other 
faculties, from the position of hand-maid to its sisters into 
the full equality of the university phase, while the academy 
accepts the general disciplinary functions slowly handed 
down from the college. The national and historical line of 
development with us, then, is clearly this: out of the college 
to evolve the university faculty of Arts, while relegating to 
the academy the charge of laying broad general foundations. 
Be it clearly understood that we define only tendencies, 
not results attained. Admitting as a logical sequence that, 
with the complete evolution of the university, the special 
schools of Medicine, Theology, Law, etc., will no longer in 
theory lean upon the faculty of Arts (practically, as before 
observed, they do not to-day), but stand shoulder to shoulder, 
if not co-ordinated with it, it must be borne in mind that 
we are looking forth into a future more or less remote, 



w 



and need not take alarm, because, from the standpoint of 
the present, sach a transformation might appear deplorable. 
On the other hand, we must not forget that the full evolu- 
tion of the university will entail such a reorganization of 
secondary instruction as shall unite under one curriculum 
and in one institution the entire general disciplinary train- 
ing, now illogically dissevered, and modify it so as to meet 
existing demands. We venture, furthermore, the prophecy, 
that the pursuit of Medicine, Theology, Law, etc., for their 
own sakes, that is as sciences, and not as brod studieii, 
bread studies, will be then less abnormal than at present. 

The university faculty of Arts is thus to be simply a 
more complete evolution, following the time-traced lines; 
in a word, the American college of to-day is the embryo of 
the American university faculty of Arts or Philosoj)hy of 
to-morrow. 

II. As second principle we simply repeated the v/ell- 
worn saw of "make haste slowly." We may best consider 
here the point reached to-day in this process of evolution. 

While the true law of mental architecture, as verilied by 
the experience of all ages and peoples, is to lay first broad 
foundations, it is not so facile a task to determine, at a 
giA^en moment, in the light of a universal consensus, the 
exact signification of broad. 

Certainly the content of broad in France, Italy and 
England six centuries ago does not fill to the full the 
potentiality of that word to-day. 

Broad has, however, always signified, educationally 
speaking, first, the general discipline of the intellectual 
faculties, and, second, the communication of those elements 
of knowledge that at a given period are judged necessary, in 
the higher sense, to intellectual pleasure and fruitfulness. 
With this interpretation of broad, when in our intellectual 



17 



palaestra, is that sine qua non to-day attained ? And 
where, therefore, shall we begin to build our university ? 
-At the expiration of the collegiate course? But the 
school of Arts has emerged already in a measure from this 
purely disciplinary phase. At the close of the so-called 
academic course as now existing, even in our foremost 
institutions of second grade ? We declare unhesitatingly 
no ! Let him who questions but weigh in just scales 
the quantum of linguistic, mathematical, scientific, and 
historical discipline and knowledge received within the 
academic walls. Since now simple fiat will neither create 
nor transform an organism, and no added syllables or 
sonorousness serve to transform the college faculty of Arts 
into the university faculty, to place by fiat a university, or 
complex of special intellectual structures upon the founda- 
tions to-day afforded by our academies is, if our reasoning 
be just, to act with undue haste and precipitancy, while to 
base such university faculty upon our colleges is to defer 
too long the superstructure. But here, as everywhere, it is 
easier to pronounce negatively than to indicate with cer- 
tainty the actual line of separation of the university from 
the academic phase. 

What renders such a task doubly difficult is the lack of 
homogeneity within our colleges. Theoretically, all of our 
departments should have advanced ^ar/ ^a^,??^/ actually, 
this is far from being the case. We venture, however, the 
assertion that, holding clearly in view the laws of develop- 
ment above indicated, such a reorganization of the earlier 
year or years may be effected as shall enable us to fix for the 
moment clear lines of demarcation, and, in accordance 
therewith, arrange within the college our academic and 
university courses. That such a line of demarcation 
should, immediately and in every case, be drawn at right 



18 



angles to the college course we do not consider as either 
wise or essential ; though, if feasible, such a division would 
afford at once the most practical and the most efficient 
solution. If desired, let the amount of each science neces- 
sary to meet the demands of fundamental culture be de- 
termined by careful reilectiun. There for that branch let the 
line be drawn. In any and every case, however, it should 
be borne in mind that we have to do with an organism 
destined to outgrow any cloak we may put upon it. 
Sj^eaking in plain terms, we believe that, in the case of 
our most advanced institutions, this desideratum of culture 
may be attained by the close of the second year, and, in 
some departments, possibly earlier. 

Assuming now that the point of departure of the 
university from the academic or gymnasial phase may be 
determined, what seems to be the course indicated by 
wisdom for us to follow during the period of transition, 
through which our colleges are now passing ? What 
other, in sooth, than to admit the university principle, 
which, as we have seen, is logically that of election, 
wherever the university already exists '. 

In seeking to answer one question, we have but raised 
another. Admitting the principle of election, how shall 
it be applied '\ As heretofore, we must find some touch- 
stone for our argument. Manifestly, while the academic 
course aims at general mental discipline first and at 
intellectual acquisition thereafter, in the case of the 
university courses the greater prominence is given to 
acquisition, while the mental gymnastic is directed more 
to the development of strength and alertness in special 
directions. Now as these latter courses are not intended to 
afford intellectual diversion, but rather to make each 
strong to run his appointed race, is it not manifestly wiser, 



19 



at least for the present, for those who know by experience 
of American life and its needs in this our nineteenth cen- 
tury, to mark out with generous wisdom courses leading 
somewhither, than to place a decision, upon which so 
much depends, in the election of minds that cannot, in any 
probability, act with true insight and forethought? For 
the present absence of logical continuity from our academic 
courses produces defective mental discipline and imma- 
turity. Furthermore, in view of the limited demand for 
post - academic liberal (Arts) culture in America, any 
university organization similar to that existing upon the 
continent, would be to-day premature and, from the 
financial standpoint, unpractical. With regard to the 
strictly academical courses we will only add that, to our 
mind, election, if admitted at all, should be confined within 
the narrowest limits, mediating thus between the just 
claims of the humanities on the one side and of realism 
on the other ; so that our general disciplinary curi icula 
shall represent in parallel lines the higher stadia'^of both 
the gymnasia and the real schools of the continent. 

Minor points under this head, for example, whether one, 
two or more years should be added to the present collegiate 
curriculum to complete the university course in Arts, what 
degrees should be conferred, and when, our limits forbid us 
to discuss. We would simply observe that, inasmuch as 
the baccalaureate, or its equivalent, represents the com- 
pleted stadium of general discipline, it should logically be 
conferred at the close of the gymnasial curriculum as in 
France, though obvious reasons may render such a re- 
arrangement ill-timed, prior to the complete evolution of 
the university. 

Our argument leads, then, to the conclusion that the 
natural starting point for our university courses to-day is 



20 



to be found at the end of the second or third 3^ear of the 
present so-called collegiate curriculum. 

But is it possible or desirable even immediately to 
dissever the two stadia of discipline, now conjoined, the 
general and the special, relegating the former to an 
American gymnasium or academy, and calling forth into 
existence at once, as a distinct entity, the university^ 
What is to become of the thousand and one American 
colleges, when the university appears, if the re-organized 
academy assumes the entire charge of the disciplinary 
work ^ 

The discussion of these and similar questions, suggested 
by our argument, falls naturally under our third principle, 
to wit : 

III. Every organism, to exist and to be efficient, must 
stand in accord with the laws of time and place. 

While the deductions from this principle have already 
found to a certain extent illustration in the process of our 
argument, there remain still important points to be eluci- 
dated. 

First and foremost the scope of the American University ; 
its mission as an educator. 

The permanence of institutions in any country depends 
upon the intelligence and the harmonious co-working of 
those elements of the body politic in whose hands rests the 
ultimate authority. 

In every democratic government this control is theoreti- 
cally exercised by all classes, the special influence accruing 
to each depending upon its relative intelligence and 
numerical strength. History, however, shows a centrifugal 
force, always operative, tending ever more and more to vest 
w^ith the ultimate authority the class numerically strongest. 
Our future usefulness as a nation, nay, our future existence, 
depends therefore : 



21 



1st. Upon tlie maintenance of a high intellectual 
average among the masses, and 

2d. Upon the fostering of an intelligent sympathy be- 
tween the various elements of our body politic. 

Again, the right to be of any organism, ethically con- 
sidered, is contingent upon its sustaining a relation of full 
active sympathy with the whole of life. 

What, now, is the part in American life which belongs to 
our university ? 

We are firmly convinced, that its calling, like its name, 
is catholic. To the few it is to be a guide through those 
regions which science is slowly wresting from the unknown, 
inspiring the pupil, in his turn, to extend the domains of 
conquest. To the many its mission is to communicate in 
intelligible form the results of its activity. 

In other words, in addition to its courses for matricu- 
lates, the university will afford the masses opportunities of 
acquainting themselves with the latest results of research in 
all directions. For instruction in history, political and nat- 
ural science, literature, etc., intended for the people and ar- 
ranged in such a manner, as regards time and place, as shall 
best accord with their convenience, forms, we believe, as in- 
trinsic a part of the province of the American University as 
the esoteric instruction. How this theory can be applied, 
whether such popular instruction should be communicated 
directly by the professors themselves, or mediately through 
others, whose thought is less wonted to severe forms of 
expression — this and similar points are but questions of 
detail. 

We conceive of the American University, then, as a focus 
of universal enlightenment, to the matriculates, to the 
cultured few, and to the toiling and ruling myriads of our 
State. That a thousand objections to this proposition will 



22 



be brought we are aware ; but with the three factors, of 
wisdom in adaptation of means to ends, patience, and time, 
we are convinced that the impracticable and the impossible 
will be found entirely capable of realization. 

It seems superfluous to point out the powerful influence 
such an institution Avould exert upon the elevation of the 
intellectual average, upon the maintenance of an intelligent 
sympathy between the different classes of society, and upon 
the quickening of national sentiment. 

The second point that falls naturally under this head is 
the religious question. Here, as always, we must build upon 
broad principles. The American University cannot be 
sectarian. It is to educate the sons of Jew and Gentile ; it 
must stand, therefore, upon ground common to both. It 
must be the true expression of our religious thought as a 
people. And now, we ask, what is this thoughts Upon 
many an earnest, honest mind stands already graven the 
answer. The search for truth, the aspiration toward 
nobility, are the links of universal spiritual brotherhood. 
From the vale with bounded horizon where birth placed us, 
one and all, education, contact with humanity, lead upward 
to this height. Not that you or I are to deny the old ; by 
no means. We are of those who behold the beauty and the 
power of the old first, when it is illumined by this thought. 

Climb the hills of your northern wilderness, and, stand- 
ing upon some bared peak, let the eye follow the unbroken 
sweep of forest until sky and hills meet. 

The rills, that unseen move valleyward, seek here the 
Hudson, there the St. Lawrence, but all unerringly a 
common ocean. 

Humanity awakes everywhere into consciousness with 
an intuition of the infinite, and, with earnest patience, 
seeks, by paths the fathers trod, or others, self-traced out, 



23 



trusting some time to behold and to comprehend that which 
it long ago presaged. 

The earth-walled river loses its separate existence in 
attaining the limitless ocean ; the finite may not comprehend 
the infinite, until the walls of material life have fallen apart. 
But the same ocean awaits the patient, tireless search of 
the rills, and the same Infinite Spirit, the tireless, patient 
search of the finite. 

And it is this intuition of the infinite and this patient 
following on through light and shadow, that constitute the 
link uniting us all, man with man, in one common brother- 
hood. 

But while our American University in the very nature of 
things cannot be sectarian, and while the inculcation of 
theological dogma is not its province, we hold, nevertheless, 
that its character should reflect the universal religious 
sentiments and convictions of our American society. We 
are most certainly a religious people, in the broad, deep 
signification of that word, and our American University, 
in its teachings and influence, will, we trust, always stand 
in the forefront, and on the side of a catholic, enlightened 
and progressive religious thought. 

Hitherto, while studying the development of the uni- 
versity, and attempting to determine the point reached in 
the process of evolution, we have treated it as a thing of 
the future. 

But while its full activity unquestionably belongs to to- 
morrow, it is a pertinent question whether, observing the 
lines of development already traced, it may not to-day, 
even, be treated as a distinct organism and, as such, be 
placed upon an independent basis. The significant fact 
that a number, rapidly augmenting, of our young men seek 
European universities, and the success attending the Johns 



24 



Hopkins experiment render this question an even more 
pertinent one. 

But can we, without disturbing the action of laws, call 
into being at once a completed organism?" We would 
answer this question by declaring that to recognize out- 
wardly distinctions that already inwardly exist, through 
evolution, is not to anticipate the action of law. The leaf- 
stalk, that has emerged from the soil, distinguishing itself 
thus from the root, with which in the embryo it was in a 
sense confounded, we are permitted to treat as distinct, 
though we may not attempt, by force or by jugglery, to 
draw it forth into the fully developed tree. 

To-day in America we have to do with two phases of 
higher liberal education, the academy or gymnasium, and 
the university, entirely distinct in character and purpose, 
the one from the other. Why seek to perpetuate the form 
of transition represented by the American college, which, 
having outgrown in a measure the gymnasial phase, with- 
out having as yet attained the fullness of the university, 
presents so much confusion in aims, and accomplishes 
frequently such unsatisfactory results % Why not rather 
relegate to the academy, broadened or new created, the 
entire gymnasial work, and upon such basis begin at once 
to rear our university I We are well aware of the difficul- 
ties involved therein. In the case of the majority of our 
long-established colleges, the process of abandonment to 
the academy of general education and the consequent en- 
largement of the province of the latter institution, must 
perhaps be a gradual process, eftected only by slow increase 
from year to year in the requirements for matriculation. 
But only a small percentage of our colleges, to be de- 
termined by natural selection, are destined to become 
universities, and an institution, representing distinctly and 



25 



solely the university phase, if placed at once on its natural 
historic basis, would become a powerful factor in the re- 
organization of our higher education, inasmuch as it 
would place distinct goals before the institutions of both 
grades, and stimulate everj^where zealous efiort toward their 
attainment. 

The immediate organization of the American University, 
as a distinct entity is, therefore, we submit, entirely possible. 

What is to become of the American Colleges % The 
future holds the answer, and we can only surmise. A few 
will develop into universities, many must be reorganized 
as simple academies or gymnasia ; but, in all probability, 
the majority will continue to exist, essentially unchanged, 
ministering to the intellectual requirements of those for 
whom the university provides too broad, the academy too 
restricted a field. 

There remains a question of pertinence to those of us 
who are placed at the great centers of American life. 

We lack too often a true civic spirit. But love for the 
state is born at the fireside and nurtured in the civic assem- 
bly. How, then, shall we attain true national life, if we fail 
to foster true civic life? The material digestive centers 
already, our great cities may and should become the intel- 
lectual foci of America. But are we worthy to assume this 
responsibility, worthy to lead forth into expression this 
grand new life of the western world % Not until the barriers 
of selfish interest have fallen, and you and I love more the 
whole than that petty fraction environed by our social circle. 

O that there were something that might draw together 
our best energies, and give them forth again vitalized from 
a common center ! 

Behold it is here among us, if we but will it — a university 
fulfilling its proper function of educator to the few and 



26 



to fhe many — a true American organism, lifted to indepen- 
dence of thought and expression ! Behold that which may 
prepare us for our calling, and through us lead forth into 
expression that life whose pulsations are richer with possi- 
bilities than those of ancient Greece or Rome ! 

For this is not an idle fancy. Humanity does progress,and 
the more in accord with the ideal, tlie race-expression, so- 
cially and politically, the more fitting will be the habitation 
that awaits the coming of art, and, when that long-expected 
day dawns, the more simple and adequate her languao:e. 

All the other points that naturally fall under this head, 
such as the advisability or non-advisability of co-ordinating 
the different university faculties, how many distinct schools 
we should recognize, etc., are mere matters of detail, which 
it is not our purpose to examine here. 

Summing up, now, our argument leads to the following 
conclusions: 

First. The American college is in embryo the university 
faculty of Arts or Philosophy, and has already emerged in 
a measure from the academic and gymnasial phase. 

Second. The process of evolution not being as yet con- 
summated, to treat the entire four-year period of culture as 
post-academic is precipitate. 

Third. To regard the present collegiate course as wholly 
academic is to defer too long the university superstructure, 
both on account of the point already attained in the pro- 
cess of evolution as well as in view of the practical consider- 
ations, which devolve from the comparison of the present 
age at graduation from the American college with that of the 
alumni of the lycees and gymnasien. 

Fourth, Such an internal reorganization of our collegi- 
ate curricula may be effected as shall place the starting 
point of the university courses to day at the end of the 
third and, we believe, even of the second year. 



27 



Fifth. This line of demarcation may deflect during the 
present transitional period according to departments and 
need not be a straight line. 

Sixth. Election should be admitted wherever the Uni- 
versity exists, meaning thereby rather elective courses than 
elective studies. 

Seventh. Election, if admitted at all during the acad- 
emic stadium, should be confined within the narrowest 
limits. 

Eighth. The scope of the university is to be two-fold : to 
instruct the few and to enlighten the many; to stimulate and 
elevate all classes of society. 

Ninth. The American University should be unsectarian 
and yet religious, though not as such inculcating religion. 

Tenth. The university may be established immediately 
on its true historic basis, and its influence will thus tend to 
direct and to accelerate the reorganization of our higher 
education. 

Eleventh. The presence of such an institution in or near 
each one of our great cities would afford the center and 
force needed to unite, purify, and energize our individual- 
istic strivings, preparing us to play our part as leaders, and, 
through us, enabling the American idea to attain adequate 
expression in art as well as in government. 

Where green hill swards slope upward from the Thames, 
where, following the rivers course, or straying the fields 
across o'er well-trod paths, the pilgrim of to-day may 
transport himself backward two centuries and more, 
casting long shadows athwart the soft green velvet of their 
lawns, the colleges of Oxford rise, luring to retrospection 
with historic memories, and dreamy with clustering ivy. 

Where the hum of the busiest of European political 
workshops, directed by the grandest intellect perchance of 



28 



our age, is ever heard, deepening the shadow upon dull 
pavements that but yesterday echoed to the tread of 
conquering armies, a bare, deserted castle, the University 
of Berlin rises. 

On many a hilltop, and many a murmuring stream 
beside, the American college stands, and long may it stand 
there ; for, during that stage when the individual character 
is most receptive of oiitward impressions, at nature's school 
and in the buoyant health-giving air, our American youth 
shall thus best be iitted, spiritually as well as physically, 
to endure, to be true and noble. But the academic portals 
close upon youth, and, like some great magnet, the city 
attracts. 

Behold them thronging our gates, bringing to us the 
freshness of their young manhood I They come to be tested 
in this arena, hoping, through contact with the intenser life 
stirring at this center, to make their individual lives richer 
and- more fruitful. 

How shall Ave best prepare these, our young men, to 
grapple with the great social and political problems of the 
age, which, under the freer conditions of our civilization, 
should attain a more natural and speedy solution here than 
elsewhere ? 

And how, with and through them, place the aristocracy 
of thought in sympathetic relations with the democracy, 
that each may listen to the pleading of the other and, class 
prejudice removed, the common interest of both may 
prevail ? 

The rays of a warm southern sun fell, a mocking im- 
potent rain of light, upon the despairing Syracuse, until 
an Archimedes, binding in one sheaf the scattered beams, 
launched it forth a bolt of death upon the beleaguering 
fleet. 



29 

WMle the American University, though lifted to in- 
dependence of thought and expression, may not create a 
republic of Plato, it may do much toward focalizing and 
energizing these intellectual rays that are now diffused ; 
directing them against those class theories, whatever their 
name, that are alike subversive of all society, whether their 
recruits be gathered from the palace, the workshop, or the 

hovel. 

New York City is passing through a transition stage, 
emerging, we confidently trust, from a past of purely 
material activity into a future of immense possibilities for 
good and evil, as the center, at least for a time, of the 
spiritual and intellectual life of our country. 

And, in a large degree, is it true, that we of to-day may 
make of this city what we will, that it lies as plastic clay 
in our hands. Shall we then shape it still in the image of 
Mammon, and fall down before it, or shall we infuse into it 
our own noblest thoughts, our own noblest selves, until, 
transformed, it bodies forth the ideal, until its influence 
shall be felt as an inspiration, all pervasive, all persuading? 
But, as no harvest comes without the sowing, so no 
elevation of the character and influence of a civilization, 
without a force energetically active and a basis for its 
application. 

If New York City is to become pre-eminently the point 
for the application of that intellectual and spiritual lever- 
age which is to elevate our American society, the metro- 
politan university is, we believe, to be the lever. 

Man, attempting to stay the onward march of history, 
is the gracious child lifting its chubby hand to ward off 
the somber, veiled figure of death, in the dream of the 
painter. History and law have already determined the 
site of the American University, and traced its ground 



30 



plan. Whether we will or not, a metropolitan university 
shall be established here in New York City, and in accord 
with past conditions and futiire needs. 

But while we cannot thwart law, we can wqrk with it. 

Come, then, and let us build these halls, from which the 
inspiration of another and a more favored age shall go 
forth, as the messenger of the ideal ! 

And, if with true wisdom, ye would build upon founda- 
tions that have withstood the test of time and of experience, 
where else will ye seek them, citizens of New York, if not 
here, where Columbia College stands ( 

Come, then, and, with reverent hand and consecrated 
heart, upon these foundations which your fathers have laid 
place stone upon stone, securing thus for yourselves that im- 
mortality, equally attainable by the least and by ihe great- 
est, yet, withal, the only true and worthy of human seeking 
— the immortality of noble purpose and high endeavor! 

Albeit the present is neither the time nor the place to 
consider in detail the mission of Columbia College, we will 
not withhold the expression of our personal conviction that 
not only is this institution called upon, indisputably, to 
prepare at once a basis for the construction of the metro- 
politan university, but it is also hers to organize the true 
American academy, removing, perchance, her gymnasial 
curricula to some academic home overlooking the Hudson, 
while establishing her university where it belongs, here in 
the emporium of the Western Hemisphere, here at the cen- 
ter of American life. 

Gentlemen, associates of Phi Beta Kappa, and Alumni 
of Columbia College : man sallies forth from the portals of 
youth with all the glory of the spring-time stirring in his 
blood, and with the blue expanse of heaven arched above 
him. But the experiences dt life dull by degrees the quick 



31 



pulsations, while its disappointments, like clouds, over- 
spread more and more the blue, and, with their malign 
influence, would fain efface even the impression it has left 
upon the spiritual retina. 

But if the true beauty and power of lite have once been 
discerned, we may alway behold them, if we will, penetra- 
ting in thought the cloud-veil, and clothing anew the gray 
earth with its green vestments. 

Man needs, however, in order to remain steadfast until 
life's goal be attained — man needs and must have the con- 
stant inspiration of a lofty aim, 

Happy they Avho walk toward the sunset, holding their 
spiritual vision flxed upon some grand ideal ! The seeds 
that fall from their hands— for seeds must fall— with each 
recurring harvest time shall gladden and not sadden the ages. 

To you it has been given to be sons of America and foster- 
children of Columbia College. It becomes, therefore, pecu- 
liarly your privilege and birthright, ay, your imperative 
duty, to hold up steadfastly before your own spiritual 
vision, and before that of your fellow- citizens as well, the 
ideal of a metropolitan university built upon the founda- 
tions afforded by your Alma Mater ! 



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